Dagestan: detainee's advocate cannot meet his client

On May 6 in the morning, Hadji Murat Khalitov, a resident of the village of Serebryakovskaya, Kizlyar District, was detained. His advocate Murad Magomedov said that since May 17 he was not able to contact his client; and he fears that the detainee is tortured. The investigator in charge of Khalitov's case told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the suspect was kept at the IVS (temporary detention facility) of the city of Kizlyar.

According to the advocate, Hadji Murat Khalitov, a resident of Serebryakovskaya, was detained on May 6 in the morning, when he was working in the field. "As my client's relatives told me, two cars - a Zhiguli and an UAZ - drove up to him. People in civilian clothes offered Khalitov to go with them 'for clarification of certain circumstances.' Later, a search was conducted in the house, where Khalitov lives with his family. As a result of the search, 10 submachine gun rounds and a TNT block were found. This made the ground for detention," said the advocate.

On May 13, Magomedov was admitted to defence; and on May 14 he met his client for the first time. "Khalitov told me that all these days they tortured him with electric current, demanding him to confess of his involvement in the armed bandit underground," said Magomedov, and added that on May 17 he met his client once again, and Khalitov said that he was about transfer from the Kizlyar GOVD (City Interior Division) to the IVS (temporary isolation facility) of the city of Khasavyurt.

"But when his relatives came to the Khasavyurt IVS to pass him a food parcel, they were told that there was no detainee with that name there. For a week already I don't know where my client is kept," said Magomedov. "I am afraid that Khalitov fails to survive tortures and will confess of what his kidnappers want from him. That is why, they hide his whereabouts."

Today, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent managed to talk on telephone to Kizim Isaev, the investigator in charge of Hadji Murat Khalitov's case. According to his story, Khalitov was detained on suspicion of involvement in the armed underground and storage of ammunition. All the time he was kept at the Kizlyar IVS.

When asked why the detainee's advocate and relatives had known nothing about Khalitov's whereabouts for more than a week, Isaev said that he was not entitled to answer the question. He passed the phone some senior investigator of the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan, who was supposed to run the case further. Without naming himself, the new contact told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent: "I don't know who you are and I won't answer any of your questions over the phone."